Friends (Whodini song)

"Friends"
Single by Whodini
from the album Escape
B-side	" Five Minutes of Funk "
Released	July 20, 1984 (1984-07-20) [1]
Recorded	1984
Genre	Hip hop
Length	4:38
Label	Jive Records
Songwriter(s)	Jalil Hutchins, Lawrence Smith
Producer(s)	Larry Smith [2]
Whodini singles chronology
"Yours for a Night" (1983) "Friends" (1984) "Freaks Come Out at Night" (1984)

"Friends" is a song by the American hip-hop group Whodini. The song reached #4 on the U.S. Billboard Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. ^[3]

Chart performance

Chart (1984–85)	Peak position
US Billboard Hot 100	87
US Hot Black Singles (Billboard) [4]	4
Billboard Dance/Disco [5]	25

Samples

• Public Enemy sampled the drum beat for their song "Sophisticated Bitch" from their first album.
• The song was interpolated in Nas' song "If I Ruled The World (Imagine That)" from his 1996 album It Was Written . ^[6]
• Dr. Dre sampled the track for "A Nigga Witta Gun" from the 1992 album The Chronic .
• The song was sampled on the Nickelodeon sitcom Taina on the song "Thought that we were friends", sung by Christina Vidal who played the title character.
• The song was also sampled by Will Smith for the track "Potnas" on his 1999 album Willennium .
• MF DOOM sampled it for the track "Deep Fried Frenz" on his 2004 album Mm...Food .
• Bad Azz sampled it for the track "Ghetto Star" for his 1998 debut album Word On Tha Streets .
• 2Pac sampled it for the track "Troublesome '96" from his posthumous Greatest Hits album.
• 213 sampled it in their debut song "Friends" from member Nate Dogg's 1998 album G-Funk Classics, Vol. 1 & 2 .
• Bone Thugs-n-Harmony sampled it in their song "Friends" (renamed to "How Many of Us Have Them" on some releases) on their 1997 album The Art of War .
• Kendrick Lamar sampled the song in "wacced out murals," the first track of his 2024 album GNX and on a previous unreleased song called "Friends" in 2019.

The song was also used in a commercial for Corona Extra in 2023, which featured Snoop Dogg and Bad Bunny.

References

1. "Friends / Jalil Hutchins, Larry Smith ; [performed by] Whodini. Friends :..." United States Copyright Office . Retrieved August 29, 2016.
2. Escape [vinyl sticker] (Media notes). Whodini. Jive Records. JV-6617.
3. "Chart History - Whodini". Billboard . Retrieved April 13, 2017.
4. Whitburn, Joel (2004). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-2004. Record Research. p. 622.
5. Whitburn, Joel (2004). Hot Dance/Disco: 1974-2003. Record Research. p. 279.
6. "Nas feat. Lauryn Hill's 'If I Ruled the World (Imagine That)' - Discover the Sample Source". WhoSampled. Retrieved 2022-03-12.

External links

• Genius: Friends - Lyrics